“That wasn’t one of my rules,” he replies with half a grin. “That was all you.”
Realizing that’s true, I blush. "So, are you a long-time practitioner of BDSM?"
"What do you consider a long time?"
"I don't know. Over a few years?"
"Then yes. I started when I was about seventeen."
"Is that when you lost your virginity?"
"Not long after."
I wonder what it would be like to lose one’s virginity as a teenager, in high school.
"How did you get into it?" I ask.
"I have cousins who were into hentai. They especially liked porn featuring kinbaku."
I think about Christian Grey's background. "Did you have a special instructor?"
"My subs were my best instructors, but in terms of technique, I learned a lot from my cousin Shen. He used to go to school in this area. Stanford."
"Is he still here? In California?"
Tony seems to stare off into the distance, somewhere beyond the highway. "I don’t think so."
I get the feeling this cousin of his is a sensitive topic, so I veer the conversation elsewhere. "Has your family always been in the hotel business?"
"We've owned residential dwellings for centuries."
"Do you like it? The hospitality industry?"
"Do you like it?"
"It's a job. I'm not looking to be a hotel maid for the rest of my life."
He chuckled. "If you could be anything, if you didn't have to worry about money or what it takes to get there, what would you be?"
I think for a moment. "I’d still want to do something in social work.”
“You don't want to do something more glamorous? Become a singer or movie star?"
“Social work is meaningful to me. You won’t make a ton of money or change the world, but you can change someone's life, like Lila did for me."
"That's it? No other ambition?"
Maybe he thinks a career in social work is boring. "Do I need to have other ambitions?"
He looks over at me, appraising. "Most people I know aspire to money or power. And lots of it. They don't seek meaning."
"That's kind of sad. What do you aspire to?"
For a second he seems befuddled, as if no one's ever asked him that before.
"I have more money than I know what to do with. And money is power. So on those fronts, I'm done."
"And meaning? Is that something you feel you want?"